Modern-day Indian Breaking the Shackles of Caste and the...
Breaking the Shackles of Caste and the Past
Aravind Adiga effectively captures the true image of modern India through the story of the fictional character Balram Halwai. The novel takes the reader through the struggles of class that exist in India at a time when the country is undergoing rapid modernization and globalization. The novel contradicts the exotic image of India that is generally represented in literature (for example, the stories of Rudyard Kipling.) Instead the novel familiarizes us with the complications that have emerged in modern India in the last–half century – post–independence and the abolition of untouchability.
Throughout the novel Balram Halwai, the protagonist and the narrator, alludes to the issue of social mobility in the new social hierarchy of India. He discusses how the social hierarchy has undergone massive changes since the colonial times. Like we learned in class, there is considerable social mobility among the castes in India today (Week 5, Lecture 1). Adiga illustrates this transition and clash of ideologies in relation to caste beautifully through the various characters. On one hand is Mr. Ashok, who having being educated in America believes that the caste system is a thing of the past and on the other hand is his father, who still believes that caste lines are rigid and cannot be dissolved.
Balram (like most other characters in the novel) believes in strict caste hierarchy and that India "in the days of its greatness" was a more orderly
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